I’m Just Saying
by Tom Andes
Seventy-eight degrees, Remy thought. It was 78 degrees at the Fall Fête, and Donald had shown up for the gig in head to toe black, Levi’s and a thrift store suitcoat, with white Doc Martens, like a total psycho.
Temporary Suspension
by Garima Chhikara
On her way home, Tanya is thirty thousand feet above the ground, heading toward a place that feels more like a layover than a destination. For now, she hangs in suspension, the aircraft’s frosty silence swallowing the static in her head.
Representatives of Future Money
by Perry Genovesi
Emma made it through two sets of security scanners. She set on her game face before meeting Mr. Barnaby. Then they were strolling through the verdant walkways of Collegiate Gothic towers, clean brick, and lush pine.
Storage Unit
by Emily Grandy
It was a damp day in December and Roger’s mother had been dead six weeks when a call came in from an unfamiliar assortment of digits. He’d been turning into the empty parking lot of the shopping strip, thinking about buying salt for the walks, when his phone rang. Normally, he would reject any unknown number outright, but the 440-area code—one he knew well, that of his boyhood, and of his recently deceased mother—gave him pause. It was less curiosity than suspicion that prompted Roger to answer the unexpected summons.
Good Boy
by Charles Holdefer
I don’t always listen to my dog because he can be a whiner but last night we were talking about the possibilities of afterlife and accounts of near-death experiences where someone travels down a tunnel toward a bright light which opens onto joy and sometimes a reunification with lost loved ones.
We Ate Standing Up
by Angela Edward
I landed at JFK at night, around 10:30 p.m., already unsure. Baggage claim moved slowly. I stood watching the carousel loop again and again, the same suitcases circling back like a bad joke. When mine finally came, I lifted it off the belt and felt how heavy it was. We did not talk much. I could feel him watching me, waiting for something I could not name.
Grace’s Tree
by Selen Ozturk
Paul asked me to kill a tree. I needed a permit under the Marin County Municipal Ordinance Code §223.24. I shat and ate permits at this point.
Mouse
by Jesse Salvo
Sofia says that I am not in love with her and to please stop showing up at her house. I should clarify that it is not her house and anyway I was invited and we are all I think at least capable of love.